Obama to detail a broader foreign policy agenda

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, seeking to answer criticism that he has forsaken America's leadership role, plans to lay out a retooled foreign-policy agenda Wednesday that could deepen the nation's involvement in Syria but would still steer clear of major military conflicts.

In a commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, Obama will seek, yet again, to articulate his view of the proper U.S. response to a cascade of crises, from Syria's civil war to Russia's incursions in Ukraine, according to a senior administration official who is helping draft the speech.

Sketching familiar arguments but on a broader canvas, Obama will stress his determination to chart a middle course between isolationism and military intervention. The United States, he said, should be at the fulcrum of efforts to curb aggression by Russia and China, though not at the price of “fighting in eight or nine proxy wars.”

“It's a case for interventionism but not overreach,” Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, said in an interview. “We are leading, we are the only country that leads, but that leadership has to be in service of an international system.”

Obama, however, will emphasize Syria's growing status as a haven for terrorist groups, some of which are linked to al-Qaida, officials said. That could open the door to greater U.S. support for the rebels, including heavier weapons, though no decisions have been made.

The president's speech will kick off an intense, administrationwide effort to counter critics who say the United States is lurching from crisis to crisis, without a grand plan for dealing with a treacherous world. While such critiques slight Obama's accomplishments, Rhodes said, he conceded the president had not put his priorities, from climate change to the nuclear talks with Iran, into a comprehensive framework.

Obama plans to elaborate on his ideas during a trip to Europe in early June. Over the next few weeks, the White House will roll out issue-specific speeches from Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and other senior officials.

The trouble is, as Obama takes a stage where his predecessors have signaled new directions in foreign policy — George W. Bush used a West Point speech in 2002 to revive the principle of pre-emptive military strikes — his ideas are likely to have a familiar ring.